The Aeronautical Society of India organised a Technical Meet and Aerospace Luminary Lecture on April 14, 2018 at Hyderabad with participation of nearly 400 eminent Scientists, Engineers, Industrialists and Professionals from the Aerospace sector. Dr VK Saraswat, Member NITI Aayog was the Chief Guest and Vice Admiral Ajit Kumar P, Vice Chief of Naval Staff was the Guest of Honour. Dr VK Saraswat, in his address said, "Miniaturisation will be the key in all the futuristic vehicles. We want smart systems and it is only possible if we use AI in a big way. We need to pursue cutting edge research in Hypersonics, Propulsion, Stealth and many niche technological areas. We need to embed cyber security in aircrafts for communication, transmission, data storage. Government of India has given a major push to UAV programme and a roadmap is being laid and Unmanned vehicles will also play a major role in future contactless wars."

Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Scientific Adviser to Raksha Mantri and Director General, Missiles and Strategic Systems and the Chairman of Aeronautical Society of India in his inaugural address said, "The miniaturization of sensors and technologies will tremendously transform futuristic aeronautical systems. The systems will be smart, collaborative and leading to large amount of sensor data, paving way for Artificial Intelligence & machine learning of complex systems. The global industries are looking towards India for manufacturing/collaboration and our Industries need to relook at existing business models and adapt accordingly. Lot of opportunities await in the aerospace maintenance sector and Innovation and Industry Synergy will drive the futuristic aerospace. MSMEs and Innovative startups with advanced manufacturing capabilities can fill needed gaps in the value chain and will play a key role in transforming the Defence and Aerospace Industrial landscape of the nation."

Vice Admiral Ajit Kumar, Vice Chief of the Naval Staff in his address said, " That the Indian Navy Operates a wide variety of aircraft in its inventory which include deck based fighters and the latest P8i Long Range Maritime Aircraft. In the future, the Naval Aviation is poised to expand in terms of numbers and technologies. This brings out various challenges of having to maintain, upgrade and operate aircraft to meet maritime security needs of the Nation. Acknowledging the potential of the Indian industry, he emphasized on the need to develop indigenous capabilities and home grown solutions for various challenges including training of personnel to be able to maintain and operate these assets, midlife upgrades so as to retain technological edge of these platforms and, technology enabled inventory management and logistics. He also acknowledged the role played by forums such as Aeronautical Society of India."

The AeSI had introduced "Aerospace Luminary Lecture Series". So far more than 40 Luminary Lectures by eminent Scientists and Engineers like Dr R Chidambaram, Dr P Rama Rao, Dr Anil Kakodkar, Dr RA Mashelkar, Shri AS Kiran Kumar, Dr PS Goel, Dr Kota Harinarayana have been delivered. On the occasion, Dr Y Sreenivas Rao, Project Director, AD and Secretary, AeSI shared their thoughts on the role played by AeSI in promotion of Aerospace sector in India.